Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

@FullbringIchigo Yeah I can't say anything about portables as I only owned Nintendo ones. Didn't own a Game Gear, Nomad, PSP or Vita. The only Nintendo handheld I have had to rebuy was a Gameboy Advance and that was because mine was stolen and it was before I found it at a local GameStop and before I had to fight them for it. Heck still have my original brick Gameboy.

@Tasuki i wasn't counting handhelds in my list either but i had to buy a second Game Boy Advance SP once because i left my original one in the window when i went to work, on a hot day in the middle of summer

it cooked the screen

yes i know i am an idiot

@FullbringIchigo Yeah but I wouldn't really count that one since it wasn't a manufacturer defect. Just an owner defect 😂

@Tasuki true

I’ve had two consoles fail on me. A PS3 after years of usage. My PS3 Slim is still gone though. The second console was a vita, one of the sticks was always pushing right regardless of where it was. I probably dropped it or something though. The next closet thing is the fact that my 3DS battery life is awful now.

@KratosMD From that list and owning all of them I can say that Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and Infinite Undiscovery are all worth your time and still fun to play (Currently replaying Blue Dragon myself!)

With the remastered version of Last Remnant out and fixing all the awful framerate issues I think I'd give that a skip on the Xbox unless you can find it super cheap. Eternal Sonata is more of a weird one, while I think it's a fun game, the PS3 version fixes SO MANY ISSUES like plot holes, bad boss fights, and bad cutscenes (Seriously the last five hours or so are very different depending on what system you're on) while also adding new fights, characters, and moves that if the option of getting the PS3 version is there, you should take it.

It's not awful, but if the definitive version on PS3 is simply the best experience, IMO.

@KratosMD What game was it again?.... lol

February's 2019 Games with Gold lineup for Xbox One includes: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and Super Bomberman R. For Xbox 360 owners (and through Xbox One backward compatibility), February kicks off with Assassin's Creed Rogue, followed by Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

Not too bad a line-up - could be worse, could be better too I know...

That looks like a decent month. I think I've got the Assassin's Creed title but I don't have any of the others.

GOOD news i fixed my XBOX ONE, it had a lose connection so i fixed it (on a side note IF it was still in warranty it certainly isn't now )

so my XB1 is up and running again, just in time too as Jump Force is out on Friday and i had the XB1 version pre-ordered

@BAMozzy Jedi Academy was awesome but i'm pretty sure i still have the OGXB version somewhere and i have Rouge HD on PS4, same as Curse of the Moon and i never was interested in Bomberman

still some good games there this month

@FullbringIchigo Good to hear you got your Xbox sorted.

I can't remember which games I have on the OG Xbox any more. They are all in a box in storage and have been for the last 10yrs or so. Its still good to get OG Xbox games via GwG and playable on XB1.

I didn't buy AC: Rogue so will add that but the two XB1 games aren't really of interest to me but if I had to pick one, Bloodstained would be my pick. I doubt I will bother playing it though and would prefer Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (the 3D Castlevania) than this.

Oh dear, it's not looking good for Crackdown 3. Even the Xbox staff over at ign were not impressed by it.

I have decided to keep Gamepass as I am trying to reduce the money I spend on games and this year already I have played a couple of games and tried several more. With Shadow of the Tomb Raider added (which I nearly bought in the sales) I will keep it going a bit longer. I will also give Crackdown 3 a go because the only thing I'd lose is download time.

@JohnnyShoulder The first was good, the 2nd wasn't and the third looks 'meh' to me. I watched 1 match of MP too and that was not something that interested me at all. The 'destruction' was particularly poor and certainly not as they had intimated. It looked like destruction you would expect back on the OG Xbox.

I know 'graphics' aren't everything but it really looks dated. Look at how well Agents of MAYHEM did, if you even remember that game now, and that looked to have a more varied and more interesting game-play loop. I wouldn't be surprised if the only people that play this are those that get it via Game Pass or the few that will pick it up when the price crashes. A near future GwG game!

I think MS made the wrong decision to cancel Scalebound and keep putting money into this!!!

Also, in case anyone wasn't aware, Microsoft Studios is no longer called this - its now Xbox Game Studios and this is coinciding with the fact that Microsoft declaring that 'Xbox' is its gaming brand across all devices, expanding beyond a console focus and including PC and mobile in the mix. That means they can say that their 'exclusives' are Xbox only.

Its been obvious to me that their games are 'Microsoft' only yet some still say that they are not exclusives because their games can be played on PC. Often the same people that were listing Nier and Hellblade as Playstation exclusives (double standards) - yet the MS exclusives required PC owners to set up an 'Xbox' type Profile and buy from Microsoft Stores as well as have a Microsoft Windows 10 PC.

It doesn't bother me at all as it only matters which games I get to play and couldn't care less that others get to play them as well. For MP games, the more people playing, the better. It means that there is a bigger lobby to ensure I get to play with more local people, better matchmaking and have the 'best' ping. The big advantage of cross-platform play too.

@BAMozzy yeah i took it apart and fixed it, i had to re-solder the wireless adapter back in (those years of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering paid off )

@BAMozzy you know give it a gen or 2 and i can see MS not bothering with a console of their own and just putting XBL on all the systems (which Sony would probably allow if there wasn't a competing XBOX console)

and it would probably make them more money too

@BAMozzy Funny you should mention the OG Xbox, as someone else said that. I thought all the fancy cloud processing was supposed to be handling the destruction in MP?

@FullbringIchigo Cool, I wouldn't know where to begin but at least it saved you a lot of Money. MS would probably charge you £100+ for that, plus any shipping costs if its over a year old. Almost as much as buying a 2nd hand replacement.

I have said that about MS having 3rd Party built 'consoles' in the future. Consoles made by HP or Acer as they do gave a 'good' relationship with MS. So many people think that the 'console' is important as to who makes it but in reality, its predominantly just the device to play their (and other's) games on and a LOT of the parts are not made by Sony, MS, Nintendo etc.

Xbox started out as a 'console' shaped PC and its name came from DirectX in a Box - which became DirectX Box, and then finally Xbox. It makes perfect sense to me that MS supports ALL its customers - whether you are using a first party device (Xbox, Surface etc) or third party (HP, Alien, Acer etc) - as long as you are buying into MS and have an MS Profile (also known as your Xbox Gamertag/profile), you have access to any Microsoft games. Some people can't get it in their head that the PC and Xbox hardware are NOT separate Hardware when it comes to MS games - whether you are playing on a 'fixed' spec console shaped device or a variable spec PC shaped device, its still 'Xbox' especially now that MS have renamed their studios and officially announced that ALL their gaming side is now 'Xbox' regardless of Hardware you opt to play on. Before the Rebrand, the MS PC gamers were essentially playing on a 'Virtual' Xbox with variable specs and therefore have to optimise the game themselves. That's why you can play 'digital' MS store bought games on both PC and Xbox, your cloud saves also mean that you can be playing on PC, save your game and then start up your Xbox and carry on playing. Its because you are playing on a 'virtual' Xbox and why you have an Xbox profile, can party chat and play with anyone regardless of their Hardware. Its different with Steam of course as that is a separate thing from Xbox on PC.

We all know that its very difficult for manufacturers to build a console with the specs we expect and at a 'console' price point. All you have to do is look at the Playstation 5 forum thread about the price point they expect and then also expect 18GB RAM, Zen 8core/16thread CPU, at least 8x (14-15Tflops) the GPU power of the base PS4, total Backwards Compatibility (not even the Xbox 1 offers that), a 4k HDR Bluray player with HDMI 2.1 to offer Dolby Atmos, VRR, HFR etc and 4k/60 10bit full RGB and HDR, a Solid State Drive with at least 2GB of storage etc all for £400 and certainly no more than $500. I know I have mixed the currencies here but as the price is normally based around the US Dollar, they expect the price to be no more than $499.99 or £450 in the UK. £500 would equate to around $640-$650 - although as we get the raw deal in prices, that would most likely be priced between $550 & $600 which is still far too much to spend on a 'console' in many peoples eyes. Factor in all the transportation costs from factory to wholesaler and then on to a retailer, all those extra handlers all wanting their 'cut' of the profits - even if its 'pennies' per console in some cases, its not surprising that some consoles are sold at a loss to the actual manufacturer or at the very least, they break even until the price of components drop.

Anyway that's a bit of a digression - the point was that for console manufacturers, the device they play on is not that profitable so if you can pass that on to a third party (or third parties), then you are not taking that risk, that hit and can be more profitable on software and subscriptions. The third parties may well be competing and therefore you can end up with 'better' devices being released relatively frequently. I know some will still look at that as a 'console' rather than as a piece of hardware like a mobile phone, iPad/laptop or even like separate pieces of hardware, for example GPU's & CPU's which get released 'yearly'. Just because say HP releases a better piece of hardware than the one you bought a year ago, doesn't mean you have to buy it - much like the PC space that doesn't have to buy the latest GPU/CPU's every year to keep gaming - you just buy into the 'hardware' at a time that's right, when last years are going much cheaper because the latest is out for example and game on that for 3-6yrs and then upgrade and carry on gaming with ALL your library exactly as you would on PC's with replaceable parts. You don't have to buy the latest CPU/GPU every year, you just upgrade when you want/need to. You don't have to buy a MS 'Surface' PC to get Windows 10 and all the MS PC software so why not let 3rd Party hardware specialists build your multi-media gaming PC in a 'console' shape and MS can focus on what they have done for years, OS and Software.

@JohnnyShoulder I haven't seen anyone really talking about Crackdown 3. I watched one video, EvilBoris, the guy who does HDR analysis on his and HDTV's youtube channel, playing one match of Crackdown 3 and the destruction is 'POOR'. Battlefield 3 (2011) has better destruction and polygonal holes blown into buildings really does look like OG Xbox/PS2 era destruction. An RPG type blast on a floor looked terrible - it wasn't circular but made up of a few straight lines and no indications (like burn marks, debris etc). It really looked dated - especially compared to the destruction we see in the latest Battlefield.

I do think that with the time this game has been in development for (nearly 5yrs since its E3 reveal), this game should look much better and much more akin to that E3 trailer. I know they made promises around the destruction, even if the message was unclear about it being more for the MP despite the reveal indicating it would also be in the main game - something I really couldn't see working as the 'Agent' is meant to be clearing the city of crime, not of buildings, also they are supposed to be the 'good' guys and destroying the city would deprive the innocent of homes, shops etc. From a gameplay perspective, it would also ruin the rooftop races, the hunt for all the orbs etc. It just didn't fit. Even if you could destroy the odd building - the crime lords base - its immersion breaking because of the inconsistency.

I don't know if you watched the cloud based destruction Demo that MS released - showing how much more destructive elements and particles that would allow at a higher frame rate back in 2014 that was shown off. It was this that MS decided it would suit Crackdown 3 'proof of concept'.

However, this is far better than what I have seen so far of the Crackdown 3 destruction. Even this is very 'polygon blocky' but you still get debris. 5yrs on, you would expect more refinement to this, not look worse.

Crackdown was a great title and one of my favourite games back on the 360 in the early days but I would rather play that again than this - it seems a step back although that could also be more because games have moved on a lot since 2007. As someone who doesn't subscribe to Game Pass, I won't be buying this at or around launch. It maybe something I pick up when its price has crashed down just for some nostalgic 'fun'. But with games like Metro, Anthem, Division 2, Days Gone etc coming out in the next few months too, as well as my back catalogue of games to play, it may be offered on GwG before I think about buying it - not that I would complain if that does happen....

@BAMozzy you mean kind of like what a Steam Box was but for XBL?, different companies making different versions